by Erin Raegan
Uthyf rocked me all the way back then shifted his own hips off the bed, sliding back against me. I tensed and panted into his mouth, dropping my forehead onto his.
“Uthyf?” I whimpered. I felt like I was going to detonate, but I couldn’t find the spark.
“My Mohna, my queen, look at you. So beautiful.” He rocked me faster, harder.
I cried out and exploded, wrapping my arms around him and trembling, shaking, splintering apart. Uthyf snarled and bit deep into my neck. Hot liquid coated my pelvis and thighs before we sagged against each other. We held each other as my heart tried to beat right out of my chest.
He panted into my neck. “You have ruined me, love. I will think of nothing else but you the rest of the morn.”
I giggled into his chest, hugging him tightly. Uthyf rolled and came down on top of me. He shifted and dropped his hand to my thigh, smearing himself up my bare belly under my gown, rubbing the warm wetness into my skin. I shivered and closed my eyes. Uthyf dropped his head and nuzzled the nipple still poking out of my gown. I curled my thighs around his waist and tensed, my breath catching.
He watched me with heated eyes as he licked my nipple playfully. It tightened and he seemed captivated, licking then sucking it. His fingers dipped down and he watched my face cautiously as he explored between my thighs. I whined and shifted anxiously. His nose nuzzled the other side of my gown aside, and he went for the other nipple. Just as he took it in his mouth, a loud knock came at the door.
I tensed and Uthyf snarled, curling his entire palm around me between my thighs. My breath whooshed out of me and I shifted in his hand, my head sagging back. He rubbed me furiously with his palm as he looked over his shoulder at the door. I dragged my fingernails down his arms and rocked my hips frantically.
The knock came again and I froze, whimpering in frustration. Uthyf snarled louder and rubbed faster.
“Once more,” he growled into my breast. He curled his fingers into a fist and rubbed his knuckles in tight circles.
The knock came more insistently.
“Uthyf,” I panted in alarm. He needed to stop, yet I felt like I would cry if he did. I didn’t think I would ever be able to feel like this again and I didn’t want it to stop.
Uthyf roared at the knocker and quickened his knuckles into tight, hard circles. My hand grabbed the edge of his wing, strangling it. My hips bucked, and he bared his teeth.
“That’s it, my Mohna, give me your release.”
“I-I can’t.” I panted. The knock came again as someone called his name. I groaned in frustration.
But Uthyf ignored them and pinched my clit, squeezing it. “You will. Your king demands it.”
I screamed and thrashed under him, bucking. My toes curled and my hands slapped his horns and strangled his long beaded ridges. He grinned triumphantly and laved the side of my breast as I came back down. I panted and curled into a ball as he jumped from the bed, boldly displaying his erection. He walked to the door and cracked it, snarling something, then he slammed it and walked back to me, his eyes roaming up and down my body. I scrambled to pull my gown back into place, and he smiled softly.
He bent and nuzzled my neck, caressing my belly. “I must go, love.”
I nodded and accepted the kiss he dropped on my lips.
He turned and hesitated. “I am humbled by your bravery. I am stunned by your beauty, and I am overjoyed you are mine.” Then he turned and left.
I stretched and smiled.
The rest of the morning, I was floating on air. I drifted through the halls, grinning and laughing to myself. Everyone stopped and watched me, a puzzled smile on their faces. All morning, Myrna huffed and puffed, frustrated with me. I couldn’t concentrate. I was too busy daydreaming, replaying every touch and word we exchanged that morning.
He had touched me. And I liked it. It didn’t bring terrible memories. It didn’t fill me with fear. It was beautiful and amazing and I wanted to do it again and again.
I couldn’t wait to see him again.
I drifted through the kitchen, making several new cakes, wondering if I could surprise him with new flavors. Isin watched me with a puzzled frown, but it didn’t bother me. I was on cloud nine. Mid meal came and went, then I was rushing to the throne room where we usually met.
But he wasn’t there. Gryl and my guards followed me all around the castle as I searched for Uthyf. I asked them where he was, but all they could say was he was busy. So they followed me to my room, where I dug through my closet for something new and pretty to wear for him. Last meal was delivered, along with a slice of each of my new cakes, and I lit the bowls of fire around the room. I braided my hair and beaded them like Lydia had and sat impatiently, waiting.
The food grew cold. Gryl and the others were frustratingly silent when I asked where he was. They shifted anxiously as it grew later and even Yeln left to inquire about him after my begging. Hours went by, but he never came. My happiness slipped and my smile dimmed into an anxious frown. I fell asleep on the bench in the sitting room and woke up alone. He never made it back to our room.
And he didn’t the next night.
Or the night after that.
Or the night after that.
18
Uthyf
Warily, I followed the assassin down into the dungeons of Juldoris.
He had come for me.
But he had not pulled a blade.
Instead he said he had something for me.
If not for the word of a friend, I would have engaged the assassin at first sight. But instead the Kilbus Lord had urged me to go with the assassin. And so I had.
I went with only a thought for my mate. Envisioning her despair when she found me missing. Already I could feel the pain of our separation and it ate at me. Knowing she would feel it just as keenly. My commander would search the skies for me. My Dahk would panic. But the Kilbus Lord owed me a life debt, and I trusted him.
The assassin would have come, I always knew he would. I thought our meeting would have been silent. Not a word spoken. Sword to sword. But as he asked me to go with him, I knew I had no choice. I could have refused. The battle would have been long and bloody. But I was no fool. If he wanted to bring me here, there was little I could do to stop him and his gifts once he got his hand on me. And I would not endanger my mate or my Dahk, battling the assassin in my home. So I went with him.
But not a word had been spoken since he took me from my own throne. The assassin’s gaze was dark and turbulent as he misted into my castle. I could see the battle inside him. His form had vibrated with the urge to engage me but he had not. It was intriguing.
Why did he fight it? Why did he not succumb to the vile beings inside him? So little was known about the Shadow Born but it was clear to see he was afflicted by something powerful. Beings that fought for control of his will.
He once told me he would come for me. But looking at him now, I had to wonder if it was not the assassin that wished to battle me but instead the things that infected him.
I kept my fist on my sword as my enemy misted me through shadow to Juldoris. But there was no sign of the master here. The castle walls were quiet and dark. No other sign of life save for the assassin.
And now as I turned the corner with the assassin, I remained alert. He would not have come so far to bring me here for nothing.
The Kilbus Lord would not have lured me into a false meeting for nothing. He was on Earth but I could see the worry and mischief in his eyes on the comm screen as he informed me the assassin was on his way. Something was here that Kil wanted me to see. Something important.
The assassin stopped outside a cell and looked to me, his dark hood hid his thoughts but his lips twisted wryly as I looked inside.
Staggering back, I gaped inside the cell.
The assassin chuckled mockingly.
No, the assassin had not brought me here to kill me.
He brought me for something far, far worse.
19
Mona
> Two weeks later.
“They found him,” Peyton said as she burst through the kitchen door.
I dropped the hot pan and sprinted down the hall after her. Tahk had been searching for Uthyf for two weeks. No one knew where he had gone. The last morning I saw him, he had a private meeting and dismissed his guards. No one had seen him since.
No stone had been left unturned on the entire planet. Dahk all over Home World were searching for him. I had met with the councils from each city several times a day as they searched their assigned districts.
Hull was missing as well. Tahk and Wohn suspected he had something to do with it, but they didn’t know how Uthyf could have disappeared from the castle without a trace. Fihk had taken Dahk One and started searching outside the planet.
I had been sick, unable to sleep, unable to eat, but I had never had a moment alone. Tahk had taken over my security and assigned me a guard of over twenty bodies at all times. At first, he feared someone would try to take over the throne, but in a surprising turn of events, the Dahk kingdom rallied behind me. Males and females from all over volunteered to join the hunt for their missing king, and the castle was now crawling with hundreds of Dahk offering help wherever it was needed.
It pissed Tahk off. He didn’t trust so many in the castle. But the Dahk were afraid and worried and it didn’t feel right to turn them away. So in a surprising turn of events, I had put my foot down for the first time as queen. I wasn’t stupid, I knew it was dangerous and measures were being taken to prevent anything from happening. But these were my people —Dahk— now. It was my duty to look out for them as well as my fellow humans.
The crowd in the halls spread as me and my guards sprinted past.
Tahk was at the end of the hall by the castle doors. “My queen.” He bowed quickly and held me back by my arms. “Please, stay here.”
I shook him off. “Where is he? Is he okay?”
Tahk looked out the castle doors. “We do not know.”
I shoved past him and through the doors. A strange ship sat a few yards away from the castle. It was completely surrounded by the Dahk army. I rushed down the steps, and a Dahk I had never met draped a robe around my bare shoulders. Several Dahk blocked me from stepping off the last step, and Tahk grabbed my arm on one side, Gryl on the other.
“He’s on there?” I asked.
Tahk looked at the ship with a scowl. “There was a request for admittance. The message said that they had our king.”
Shouldn’t he have told me as soon as he found out? Peyton had to tell me for cripes sakes. I got that I was a female and queens weren’t awarded full control over the kingdom, especially a human. But, with Uthyf gone, they had been running most things by me anyway. At least informing me what was happening. Why hold this back?
“Has anyone come out yet?”
Tahk shook his head.
“Have you tried to hail them?”
Haytu stepped up beside us. “They have not replied.”
Just then the ship made a whirring sound and a door opened. A figure stepped out, cloaked head to toe in black. I took a startled step back. Vyr was suddenly in front of me and cursing.
I gasped. “That’s the assassin, isn’t it?”
Vyr nodded slowly. Tahk growled and stepped off the last step. Vyr held out his arm and shot Tahk a look of warning. Tahk flashed his fangs at Vyr and shoved him away. Vyr rolled his eyes and misted away. He reappeared next to the cloaked figure across the ice.
We watched in tense silence as Vyr crossed his arms and said something to the figure, who lowered his hood. Then the assassin turned and stared at me from across the ice. I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the frigid temperature that skated down my spine. Tahk shouted at the guards around us.
I squinted as another figure stepped off the ship. It was smaller, daintier. Haytu sucked in a breath and staggered back.
“What? Who is it?” I asked.
“The queen,” he breathed in shock.
That was Queen Josyd?
Two more figures stepped down, then I was sprinting across the ice. Gryl shouted my name, but I saw him. Uthyf was whole and alive and nothing could keep me from him. I heard the booted feet chasing me and the flap of wings above. Gryl dropped down in front of me and I barreled past him. He cursed again.
Uthyf saw me and leapt into the air. He landed and I slammed into him, climbing him and circling my arms and legs around him. I held him tightly and trembled against him. His hands ran down my body and clamped down.
“Are you okay?” I cried.
“My Mohna,” he crooned. “I’m fine, love.”
“Where have you been?”
“All will be revealed. I have missed you.”
“I missed you too,” I said. My eyes welled up and I buried my cold nose in his neck.
A dark tremor rolled over me, and I looked over his shoulder. The assassin watched us, his eyes twin pools of black liquid. His lips tilted wryly, and I looked away.
Tahk growled and slapped Uthyf on the shoulder. “Where have you been?”
Uthyf looked over his shoulder and slowly shook his head. He walked back to the ship, shifting me to my feet so I was walking beside him, but he kept his arm around my shoulders. I looked at the assassin from below my lashes and stifled another shiver.
Uthyf stiffened and looked between us. “Why do you stare at my queen?”
Chyn chuckled wickedly. I winced and looked at my feet.
I had told Uthyf about our meeting on Juldoris so long ago. But I couldn’t bring myself to talk about how I had asked him for help. How I had begged the assassin to save me. Begged. But he had turned his back on me.
“Queen?” a feminine voice choked out.
I looked at Uthyf’s first mother, Josyd. She had a pinched expression.
The assassin turned to her and grinned. “Seems you’ve been replaced.”
His voice was just as horrifying as I remembered. It was layered and textured in a way that made it seem as though multiple voices were speaking at once. It was a sound I wouldn’t ever be able to forget.
Josyd paled and looked away from him.
Uthyf turned to Wohn. “Lock her in her room. She is not to leave. Do not take your eyes from her.”
Wohn nodded warily and stepped to her. As Josyd screeched and twisted away from the Dahk, Haytu shouted. The assassin stepped closer and rumbled something low and ominous in her ear. She blanched and cringed away from him as well. Wohn grabbed her arm, and another guard grabbed her other arm. Together, they escorted her into the castle.
“Explain,” Tahk growled.
Chyn looked at the other hooded figure and grinned. “I believe I will leave you to your business, young king.” He winked at Uthyf then misted into a ball of dark smoke.
Uthyf and the others watched the last of his smoke dissipate in silence.
“Uthyf?” Tahk prompted.
Uthyf nodded at the last hooded figure wearily. A clawed hand, a Dahk hand, rose to the hood and dropped it back.
Tahk staggered back. “Aryx?”
The male held a startling resemblance to Uthyf. “How are you, my friend?”
20
Uthyf
My brother smiled sheepishly at his old friend. Tahk seemed at a loss for words.
Haytu staggered forward. “P-perhaps we should take this inside?”
Aryx looked at me, and I felt a strange stirring of discomfort. My brother was alive. I still had trouble believing it. I’d mourned him. I’d mourned him even after all I had believed he had done. Yet here he stood.
I nodded, and we turned back to the castle. Aryx quickly raised his hood, but it was too late. Several Dahk had already seen him and looked just as flustered as my commander and his father. It did not matter. I would not hide such a revelation from my Dahk.
Mohna looked between us in confusion, and my chest squeezed painfully. I had missed her. Her scent, her smile, her touch. I knew she must have been worried and scared. I had felt the sa
me for her the long two weeks I was gone, but I had had no way of reaching her.
I lifted her into my arms, and she burrowed into me. I felt my brother’s curious gaze but ignored it.
In the castle, we settled in the throne room. Tahk, Haytu, my mate, and my brother. No one else. I would not hide my brother from my Dahk, but they did not need to hear this tale just yet. They would learn of it when I felt the time was right.
Tahk could not tear his eyes from my brother as Aryx removed his hood and shifted uncomfortably.
Haytu cleared his throat, reluctantly looking away from Aryx and to me. “What happened to you?”
I looked at my mate. “That morn, I met with the Kilbus lord. He comm’d me to relay Earth’s progress, but he had news to share. He warned me the assassin would arrive shortly and that I was to go with him—alone.”
Tahk looked away in frustration.
“I had no choice. I trust Kil. He would not have urged me to go if it were not important. I had not anticipated being gone so long or I would have found a way to get you a message.”
“Why?” Tahk snarled. Tahk did not trust Kil as I did. But I knew the Kilbus Lord from long ago and he was a close friend.
“You knew he was coming for me,” I said. Chyn had not kept his intentions toward me a secret. “I would not risk the kingdom’s safety. My guards would have given their lives to protect me and my mate.” I looked into her worried eyes. “I could not risk a public confrontation.”
